I made a 3D printed VTOL drone
I made this 130 mile capable VTOL drone in only 90 days. It can fly for 3 hours on a single charge. That would make it one of the longest range and endurance 3D printed VTOLs in the world. This is the thing I'm most proud of building to date! Before this project, I was a total CAD, 3D printing and aerodynamic modeling beginner. I had only built and flown one VTOL before. SPECS Wingspan: 3.9 ft (1200 mm) Length: 2.5 ft (770 mm) Weight: 5.6 lb (2.55kg) Airframe: foaming PLA (Bambu PLA-Aero) and PETG structural parts printed on A1 printer, CFRP booms and spars Battery: Li-ion silicon anode…
In plain words
This is a 3D-printed VTOL drone with a 130-mile range and 3-hour flight endurance on a single charge. The aircraft weighs 5.6 pounds and features a 3.9-foot wingspan, constructed from foamed PLA and PETG printed parts with carbon fiber reinforcement. It uses Amprius silicon-anode batteries, brushless motors, and ArduPilot flight control. The builder designed and built it in 90 days as a second VTOL project while learning CAD, 3D printing, and aerodynamic modeling from scratch.
written from the facts on this page · September 2026
From the sources
In the maker’s words, at launch
I made this 130 mile capable VTOL drone in only 90 days. It can fly for 3 hours on a single charge. That would make it one of the longest range and endurance 3D printed VTOLs in the world. This is the thing I'm most proud of building to date! Before this project, I was a total CAD, 3D printing and aerodynamic modeling beginner. I had only built and flown one VTOL before. SPECS Wingspan: 3.9 ft (1200 mm) Length: 2.5 ft (770 mm) Weight: 5.6 lb (2.55kg) Airframe: foaming PLA (Bambu PLA-Aero) and PETG structural parts printed on A1 printer, CFRP booms and spars Battery: Li-ion silicon anode Amprius SA08 cells, 6s2p pack by Upgrade Energy Motors: 2807 AOS for lift and cruise (unoptimized) Lifting ESCs: 4 in 1 Holybro Tekko32 F4 45A Cruise ESC: Flycolor Raptor 5 45A Lifting and cruise props: 7042 Gemfan (unoptimized) Flight controller: Speedybee F405 Wing GPS: M10 Firmware: Ardupilot 4.6.0 --- This video edit ended up shorter than I planned. Being my first Youtube video with significant post production effort, I underestimated the work required to make a longer in-depth video with voiceover, edited footage, etc.
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